Redesign or rebuild, what should I choose?
Are you considering a website redesign? Or do you think your website might need to be completely rebuilt? Then this article is for you. It helps you think about what is needed to make your website fully future-proof again.
Are you still achieving your goals?
You have all kinds of goals for your organization. If your website helps you achieve those goals, at some point you’ll probably wonder whether your website could use a refresh. And that brings up the question: ‘Do I need to redesign my website or completely rebuild it?’
How do you now determine what the best choice is for your organization? Ask yourself five questions before making a decision.
But before we dive into these questions, let’s first look at the difference between a website redesign and a rebuild.
What is a website redesign?
In short, redesigning a website means giving it a modern refresh. But it usually requires more than just refreshing the appearance. It often also means improving certain design elements, adjusting the navigation, or updating the entire look and feel of the website. The key thing about a redesign is that the website’s foundations remain the same.
When you launched your company’s website years ago, it probably worked brilliantly for your strategy at the time. Since customer expectations and technology are constantly evolving, your website needs to keep up too.If you want your business to grow, your online presence must also adapt and keep changing. Sometimes a small refresh is enough. But in other cases, that refresh isn’t sufficient.
What is a website rebuild?
When a simple refresh and redesign aren’t enough, it’s time to consider completely rebuilding your website. Rebuilding a website is essentially starting from scratch with a clean slate. You then update the underlying technology, which often includes changes to functionality, web server, CMS, code, structure, database, and more.
If your current website no longer meets your organization’s needs, it’s time to rebuild it.
5 questions to ask before choosing redesign or rebuild
There are many factors to consider when designing and building a website. Whether you’re redesigning or rebuilding, you naturally want to get it right the first time.
Do you have a CMS?
Surprisingly, many websites still operate without a content management system (CMS) or run on an outdated version that their organization has outgrown years ago. When considering redesigning or rebuilding your website, this is an important starting question to answer.
Think about how the site needs to be updated, who will handle the updates, and how often the site needs updating. Upgrading your website (rebuilding) on a CMS platform or as a custom-built website on a framework can be a valuable choice that offers significant long-term benefits.
What does your site look like on different screens?
The ‘user experience’, or the experience a user has on your website, can make or break any website. Today, users expect your website to look and work the same, whether it’s viewed on a desktop, smartphone, or tablet. And it’s not just the user experience you need to focus on.Google prioritizes mobile-friendly, scalable, and accessible website designs.
Not sure if your current site is mobile-friendly? Try Google’s mobile-friendly test tool, which assesses your website’s performance and identifies any accessibility issues. We use it ourselves regularly for our clients and use it to identify pain points in every mobile view.
If your website doesn’t have a responsive (scalable) design, the CSS/HTML code will need to be rebuilt to accommodate the desired accessibility across different screen resolutions.
What do you want users to do on your website?
Every organization needs to have an online presence. There’s no doubt about that. But what users do on the website—so the specific purpose of your website—is something you can discuss at length.
Whether it’s to inform, engage, or encourage potential customers to make a purchase; what users should do when they land on your site must be crystal clear.
If you don’t guide your visitors to the right steps, they’ll likely leave. That not only affects your reputation and costs you revenue, but also determines how your website scores in search engines.
Research shows that most visitors leave a website within a few seconds of arriving. This means you have a tiny window of time to ‘capture’ someone before they click away to a competitor.
With that in mind, what is the one thing you want them to do or know during those first few seconds on your site? Do you want them to sign up for your newsletter? Make a purchase or subscribe to a service? Or perhaps request a quote?The possibilities for your website’s goals are practically endless, but it’s important to think about this and make a choice.
The answer to this question will determine whether a redesign or rebuild is necessary. For example, if you only need to adjust content to create a clearer call-to-action and improve navigation to enhance the user experience, a redesign will usually suffice.
If you sell products online and want people to make purchases, you’ll need to rebuild your site on a platform suitable for e-commerce. And if you need an extranet, that’s a completely different type of website—so a rebuild will also be necessary. For integrations with other software like API connections, a rebuild is also more likely than a redesign.
What’s next?
The best advice is: think it through, get started, and be specific about all the details. The most important thing to consider is what you want users to do on your website. Ultimately, delivering the right information in the right way will ensure a great user experience, fewer drop-offs, more visitors, and of course, more revenue.
It may be that your website is hitting the limits of its underlying technology, and you can’t implement all the changes you want on your current site. In that case, the choice will quickly lean toward a rebuild. In other cases, a design refresh will suffice.
Need help with your process, website, and deciding between a rebuild or not? Schedule a meeting or call Martijn at 06-48084058 or email us—we’ll look together at what could work for your situation.
